13 February 2017
KALEIDOSCOPE: COLOUR AND SEQUENCE IN 1960s BRITISH ART
AN ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION TOURING EXHIBITION
LONGSIDE GALLERY, YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK
1 APRIL – 18 JUNE 2017
The Arts Council Collection is pleased to announce the launch of a new touring exhibition
focusing on British abstract art from the 1960s. Kaleidoscope examines the art of the 1960s
through the fresh lens of sequence, symmetry and repetition, bringing into view the
relationship between colour and form, rationality and irrationality, order and waywardness.
Curated by independent curator and writer Sam Cornish with the Collection’s Senior Curator
Natalie Rudd, Kaleidoscope is the first Arts Council Collection survey of 1960s art for over
20 years. It draws largely on the Collection’s outstanding holdings, augmenting the selection
with important loans from other UK collections.
This show will present paintings and sculptures by more than 20 artists including David
Annesley, Anthony Caro, Barry Flanagan, John Hoyland, Robyn Denny, Tess Jaray, Phillip
King, Kim Lim, Jeremy Moon, Mary Martin, Bridget Riley, Tim Scott, Richard Smith, William
Tucker, William Turnbull among other leading names from the period.
British art of the 1960s is noted for its bold, artificial colour, alluring surfaces and
unpredictable shapes, yet these capricious forms are underpinned by a clearly apparent
order, founded on repetition, sequence and symmetry. Kaleidoscope ranges across painting
and sculpture to find a common language across diverse movements and tendencies: from
the mind-bending surfaces of Op Art, to the repeated imagery of Pop, the mathematical
order of Constructivism, and the sequential placement of brightly-coloured abstract units in
New Generation sculpture.
British sculpture underwent radical transformation during these years. Influenced by Antony
Caro’s floor-based and brightly-coloured, abstract steel sculptures, the New Generation
sculptors incorporated a range of new materials – including acrylic sheet, fibreglass and
brightly-coloured paint – into their playful, abstract works. Highlights include Tim Scott’s
important work, Quinquereme (1966). Taking its name from a Roman galley-ship and
comprising repeated, simple units of colour, this work will assume a majestic position in front
of Longside Gallery’s wall of windows. Also on display is 4th Sculpture (1965) by Michael
Bolus, a rarely-seen orb of colour made from repeated steel shapes, on loan from Museums
Sheffield.
Painters were also breaking with tradition, employing processes of sequence and repetition
to forge new possibilities. The beguiling, sequential surfaces of Op Art are here represented
by important works including Bridget Riley’s seminal early painting, Movement in Squares
(1961) which was purchased for the Arts Council Collection from the artist’s first exhibition.
Also included is Trio (1963) a painting by Richard Smith that sits in the ambiguous space
between abstraction and representation; his paintings take on a cinematic scale and often
allude to the bold, repeated designs of billboards and advertisements. Like Smith, Antony
Donaldson chose to move freely between abstract and figurative modes. His work,
Hollywood Pix (1967, Private Collection, Hong Kong), combine an interest in American postpainterly abstraction with references to 1930s American cinema architecture.
Jill Constantine, Director of Arts Council Collection said:
“Kaleidoscope highlights the strengths of the Arts Council Collection’s holdings of 1960s
painting and sculpture, revealing the important contribution made by British artists at this
time. Making a radical break with the past, these artists opened up new approaches to
painting and sculpture and their work received international recognition. Shown together in
this exhibition, these works create a visual feast of colour and form and look as fresh and
dynamic as they did some 50 years ago.”
After the presentation at Longside Gallery, the exhibition will tour to Djanogly Gallery,
Nottingham Lakeside Arts; Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre; and to Walker Art Gallery,
National Museums Liverpool.
Kaleidoscope: Colour and Sequence in 1960s British Art is accompanied by a fully-illustrated
catalogue published by Hayward Publishing. With an introduction by Natalie Rudd and an indepth new essay by curator Sam Cornish, this compact publication presents the work of
more than 20 artists, including Robyn Denny, Tess Jaray, Phillip King, Jeremy Moon,
Eduardo Paolozzi, Bridget Riley, Tim Scott, Richard Smith, William Tucker and William
Turnbull, among others. Exhibition price £9.99 (RRP £11.99), shop.southbancentre.co.uk
For all PR and media enquiries regarding the Arts Council Collection please contact:
Filipa Mendes
Account Director
[email protected]
+44 (0) 20 7183 3577
Tour details:
Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park
1 April – 18 June 2017
Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham Lakeside Arts, The University of Nottingham
15 July – 24 September 2017:
Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick
5 October – 9 December 2017
Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool
24 Feb – 3 June 2018
Notes to Editors
Arts Council Collection is managed by Southbank Centre, London on behalf of Arts Council
England.
About Arts Council Collection
The Arts Council Collection is a national loan collection of British art from 1946 to the
present day. With nearly 8,000 works and more than 1,000 loans made to over 100 venues a
year, it is seen by millions of people in public spaces from galleries and museums to
hospitals, libraries and universities. Representing one of the most important collections of
British modern and contemporary art in the world, it includes work from Francis Bacon,
Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore to Lucian Freud, Antony Gormley and Grayson Perry.
The Collection supports and promotes British artists by acquiring art at an early stage of their
careers. The Arts Council Collection is managed by Southbank Centre, London and includes
the Sculpture Centre located at Longside, Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk
About Arts Council England
Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences
that enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and
libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to
collections.
www.artscouncil.org.uk
About Southbank Centre
Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the
midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the
South Bank of the Thames. The site
has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of
Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell
Room and the Hayward Gallery as well as The Poetry Library and the Arts Council
Collection. For further information please visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk.